Chapter 955: Da Hei Lost the Prey

Wang An harvested honey differently than Mu Xueli.

Wherever Mu Xueli went, she left everything spotless, leaving nothing behind for the bees. Wang An, however, would leave a layer behind when he harvested.

The reason Wang An did this was that the beehive wasn't too far from the village—only about twelve or thirteen li, just past the outskirts of the settlement.

That way, when he wanted to harvest honey again next year, he could return to this spot.

But if he did it like Mu Xueli, there was a high probability that the colony would flee and find a new place to settle. If Wang An wanted to find another beehive, it truly would not be a simple task.

Actually, compared to later generations, these kinds of beehives in the deep mountains of this era were quite common.

As long as one was willing to spend enough time and effort, finding one wasn't exceptionally difficult.

However, specifically trekking into the mountains just for a bit of honey was truly not worth the trouble.

Furthermore, saying it "wasn't exceptionally difficult" didn't mean it was easy; in fact, finding these things was not easy at all.

Soon, Wang An had filled two bark bags.

Although he could have squeezed out another bag of honeycomb if he continued, Wang An didn't intend to.

As he said before, he had to leave some for the bees—they needed food to survive the winter.

Only then could he continue eating honey next year.

With that, Wang An pinched out the smoldering mugwort rope on the tree and climbed down.

As soon as he descended, Mu Xueli and Wang Li greeted him. Looking at the bark bags Wang An removed from his lower back, Mu Xueli instinctively said

"Brother-in-law, there's still plenty in the hive, right? Should I go up one more time?"

Wang An shook his head.

"Don't go. There isn't much left. If we take it all, those bees will definitely flee. We'll come back next year."

Hearing this, Mu Xueli slapped her thigh, sounding somewhat annoyed.

"Why didn't I think of that before I harvested honey? If I'd known to leave some for the bees, wouldn't my family have honey to eat every year? Oh, look at me!"

It was clear that Mu Xueli genuinely felt regret over this.

As soon as she finished, Wang Li immediately chimed in with a grin

"It wasn't enough that you ate their honey; you had to empty out their food stores too. You really went all out."

Rarely, Mu Xueli didn't bicker back with Wang Li, her face full of regret.

While Mu Xueli was lamenting, Wang An and Wang Li looked at her with expressions of pure schadenfreude.

After a while, Wang An said to Mu Xueli

"Alright, stop dwelling on it. Take a bag and pack these three bags of honey to hang on the tree. We'll take them back with the meat before we head home. Then, let's hurry to the water's edge to eat, and after that, we'll continue searching for that man-bear."

After Wang An spoke, Wang Li asked

"Fourth Brother, should we take some meat over to roast and eat?"

Because this trip into the mountains was aimed at killing the man-bear, and they were in an area where animals were relatively scarce, Wang An had not brought his small pot.

Wang An shook his head.

"Roasting meat takes too long to finish; it'll delay us too much. We'll just make do with some pancakes for lunch. After we eat and rest for a bit, we'll keep searching."

Wang Li replied casually

"Yeah, it's so hot, roasting meat would be a misery."

As they spoke, the three of them worked together to hang the burlap sack containing the bark bags on a tree.

Then, the three of them led their horses by the reins instead of riding them, continuing toward the stream.

After walking about a li, they reached the stream.

In these mountains, the water in streams flowing down from the peaks was drinkable, with one exception: rainy days.

During rain, animal feces, parasite eggs, and various bacteria would be washed everywhere by the rainwater.

Drinking such water raw would, at the very least, result in diarrhea.

Finding a spring, the three of them first drank their fill, then washed the wild vegetables they had gathered. The three of them sat there eating pancakes wrapped with wild greens.

They spread the large pancakes over the flour bag, smeared them with soy paste, added wild cucumbers, wild onions, and greens, and finally rolled them up to eat.

Without exaggeration, this way of eating instantly elevated the dry, bland pancakes by more than one grade.

While eating, Wang Li suddenly asked Wang An

"Fourth Brother, what do we do if we still can't find that man-bear this afternoon?"

Chewing his pancake, Wang An spoke indistinctly

"If we can't find it, then we can't. It's not our fault if it's not found, so what can we do?"

Wang Li swallowed the pancake in his mouth before explaining

"No, Fourth Brother, I mean if we can't find it this afternoon, do we go home in the evening or stay in the mountains?"

Wang An gave Wang Li a sidelong glance.

"Stay in the mountains? Holy crap, to feed the mosquitoes? I'm not staying in the mountains."

In these woods, there were mosquitoes during the day, but fortunately, the three of them were wrapped up tightly and hadn't been bitten.

However, the most magical thing about these woods was that as soon as the sun set, the mosquitoes would swarm out in overwhelming numbers.

If you just stood there, in less than a minute, you'd be covered from head to toe in a dense layer of mosquitoes.

At that time, unless you lit a whole pile of dried cow dung, even lighting mugwort ropes wouldn't work.

Amidst their constant chatting, the three finished their modest lunch.

After smoking a cigarette and resting for a while, the three of them continued on horseback, leading the dogs, wandering around the vicinity.

As the old saying goes, "Hard work pays off for the determined."

Just as the three of them wandered into a meadow, Da Hei suddenly barked. Immediately after, the pack of dogs howled and raced forward, following Da Hei.

Meadows in the mountains were generally flat lands carved out by mountain floods.

Simply put, when floods surged, they would forcibly fill a mountain hollow with silt, turning it into a large flat area.

However, it was worth noting that because such meadows had plenty of water, dense grass, and soft soil, it was very easy for marshes to form in certain spots.

Hearing Da Hei bark, the three were overjoyed and spurred their horses to chase after Da Hei and the other dogs.

Soon, the dogs and the three men reached a small pond.

But upon arriving at the pond, Da Hei suddenly stopped barking. He began circling the pond, occasionally lifting his head to sniff the air and then lowering it to sniff the water's edge.

Clearly, Da Hei had lost the scent of the prey.

(End of Chapter)